Jeff Bezos is the passion for innovation, confidence in the future in spite of the times, the redemption of the failure as an inevitable stage of creating. “The problems of this are great – he says – but our ability to solve them is much greater.” The meeting with the founder of Amazon, the largest retail market in the world, is an opportunity to also talk about corporate culture, cinema, newspapers, relations between the United States and Europe, Donald Trump, Matteo Renzi , the key choices in life.
to give rhythm to the conversation is his unsettling laugh. As is proverbial – listen for yourself on YouTube there are several collections – when it arrives it is a kind of roar. An explosion unexpected, prolonged, involving and intimidates. Over time spent together they will count twenty.
At fifty-two, gray and white dress shirt, the entrepreneur is in Florence for a short holiday with his wife, writer. Minute and tonic, hairstyle reminiscent of the wardroom of the science fiction series
Star Trek, recently became the third richest man in the world after Amancio Ortega, owner of Zara, and Bill Gates, founder Microsoft. Bezos announces the opening of a logistics center in Rome and a research laboratory for artificial intelligence in Turin: “We have half a dozen similar facilities around the world,” he explains. “We chose Turin because it has a university of excellence, this is the real reason: stay where you churn out talent that we need, and then is close to Milan.”
Intelligence artificial will change the way we live?
“We are at the beginning of a golden age. This has been a dream of science fiction for decades. order now and we build computers that think like beings human, but we are able to solve problems that only a decade ago seemed impossible. from medicine to automobiles without driver, language, and will be an infrastructure enabling all industries will use it. “
We start from information, she bought the newspaper Washington Post . Do you think that traditional media can have a future? It is a sector that will support the advertising or subscriptions?
“There will be several models, I am convinced that some newspapers – not all – they will. Next to them are growing only digital magazines, already we see them. the Washington Post has a bright future. it’s always been a local newspaper extraordinary with a global reputation, we now have the opportunity to make it a global magazine with an equally global reputation. we are trying to transition from a head butt that drew a lot of revenue from all in all a number of small players, one that produces less revenue per user, but with a far wider audience. I think this is the right approach to the Post, for others it may not work. “
Therefore journalism should not have to rely on philanthropy or. nonprofit
“it’s healthy and appropriate for a head to be able to sustain themselves. it is the model that has worked long, there is no reason why you can not return there and this guarantees independent journalism. “
Another passion is space. He starred in a cameo in the last film of the saga of Star Trek, Beyond . How did it go?
“I begged the part.”
It was fun?
“Very much. They have made up to two hours. They came to the office in Seattle, they made a mold of my head, because the implants were made to measure. For me it was a window into a world totally different. I know the series, I’m a fan since childhood, I’ve seen every episode several times, I like the characters. “
once, in high school, she wrote of her dream to colonize space and transform the Earth into a nature reserve.
“Yes, I have not changed my mind: I’m still working on this.”
You with Blue Origin, with SpaceX Elon Musk, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Which of you is best placed in the space race?
“The space is so large that it can accommodate many winners. I hope that SpaceX is good, Virgin Galactic equally, and so others. The major sectors are not made by a single company, but by a multitude of companies, so as to achieve an ecosystem. My dream is that the next generation can live the same spirit of entrepreneurial expansion in the space that we have seen at work in the last twenty ‘ years on the Internet. for this to happen companies like Blue Origin must make it possible to transport infrastructure at low cost. we think we can travel into space safely and economically. If we succeed we will have prepared the world for the next generation. we want to see millions of people working and living in space. “
The Blue Origin motto is” Gradatim ferociter “, one step at a time, with determination. It is also his philosophy?
“I think so. I’ve always felt that slow means calm, and quiet fast. I never believed in shortcuts. The easy way is an illusion, you have to work hard, building the foundation, and then build on those. it’s what we do in the Amazon and the Washington Post . you have to be stubborn in the vision, flexible in details. Each time you learn experience, and this leads you to change the plan. the programs must change. But the vision must be stable over time, if you believe you have to insist. Sharpen a goal that you’re passionate about and go. Do not be afraid to admit that an experiment has failed. you will have learned something new you can feed your vision. “
Amazon was born in ’94. Today it has more than one hundred fifty thousand employees and more than one hundred billion dollars in revenues. What is the reason for these results?
“I remember when I drove every morning to bring the packages to be sent to the post office, hoping that one day I could not afford a forklift to load them. Everything is changed, but not the important things. We are still obsessed by the customers, we like to invent, to be pioneers, to take the long way, no shortcuts, focused, proud to be working well. “
What ‘ Amazon is today? A technology company, a company of the retail trade, a company that does everything?
“What we do is driven by technology. If I had to choose a definition would say that is a customer company, a ‘company serving customers. the first reason why we have been successful over time is because we are obsessed by more than our competitors consumers. Work hard to please customers: it is from this that is our energy, not from fighting with competitors. It’s our secret. “
okay technology, but recently have also opened physical bookstores, shops.
” It’s an experiment. the the speed with which we will extend it depends on how we will be able to understand. we want to be sure that makes sense. “
Amazon also has a specific culture. In such company are prohibited presentations with Power Point.
“Yes, you have to write complete sentences with verbs and names, topics, paragraphs. The problem of the presentations is that they are easy for the author because you just line up a list of points, but difficult for the listener. When you write a document of six pages, you are forced to understand your thinking. If I write, I myself realize I have better understood what I meant. the our meetings last an hour, hour and a half. the first thirty minutes we spend them in silence, reading the paper and taking notes. After discussing. Read silently improves the quality of the conversation. “
Some of Amazon products, such as the Kindle ebook reader, or Aws services for business, broke away from the respective sectors, breaking new ground. What is the innovation recipe?
“Simple. Improving the customer experience. To be such an innovation must be adopted by consumers. If you do not choose it, if you prefer the old road, there is no innovation. we love to invent and we are willing to fail. the big winners, like Kindle and Aws, you repay the failures. the failure is expensive, it’s embarrassing, is unpleasant. in some cultures may also be the reason for your removal , your dismissal. invention and failure are the same, you can not have one without the other. “
always remember the successes, but the failures? What was your biggest failure?
“There were very many. It would take the time of this interview to list them. An example. One of the largest was called” The auctions of Amazon ” , fifteen years ago. I thought it was a great system, only my mother said to have used it, but maybe even her. We tried again two years later, still nothing to do. in the end it came out “Amazon Marketplace”, that after eighteen months he four percent of all our sales. At that point we realized that we had finally found a winner. Testardi in vision and flexible in the details. “
Amazon is known for its rigor and his frugality. But last year a survey of the “New York Times” denounced a climate of excessive pressure on employees. How do you react to this criticism?
“The public editor of the New York Times acknowledged that there were many inaccuracies in that article, as explained us. But the best answer I can give is that there we can do what we do with unhappy people, who spend the day watching the clock. it takes creativity, you have to wake up in the shower thinking about your customers. you have to have people involved, they find meaning in what they do. one thing the right that article said, that we work hard. But i do not think that we are not alone. we want people who likes the change. Others prefer stability. But the internet is not the place for them. “
once, in a speech at the university, she said: “at eighty, you look back and the most important thing will be the choices you have done.” What it was your best choice so far?
“Eighty percent of your happiness depends on who you choose as a partner or companion. I was lucky. I’ve been married twenty-three years with Mackenzie. It was the my best choice … until now. I have no regrets. usually you regret that you did not do, for example, an undeclared love. If you follow your passions you will have no regrets. Choose who you want to spend your time, identify your battles: I want to fight on this side or the other to invent? mine is invented. But they are personal choices. Everyone has to find their own. “
this week she became the third richest man of the world. It is known for moderation. What does the money to her?
“I am the luckiest person in the world. I was born in a country that allows you to take, I had extraordinary models, a family that helped me. People who I admire the most are those that grow in spite of all the difficulties and make it. it’s not my case. I have four children, I like my life. Thanks to Amazon I have the chance to work in the future and this for me is a dream , gives me a sense. once done the basic needs, livelihood, health, I think this is what we all seek: the idea that what they do serve to make the world a better place. “
Back to the present. There is an uneasy relationship between many American technology companies and Europe: from policy to the issue of taxes.
“The simple questions at the end, huh? There are several dossiers that affect businesses of technology and Europe. we take the issue of privacy of citizens with regard to national security. it is one thing for which we do not yet have a solution. as to regulatory issues, i want to say one thing: the first caution you should use is the legislators caution. We must be careful not to hurt innovation. of course the rules are used, but we must think well about what is the best way to apply them. “
Why invest in Italy?
“we like your market, and Italian consumers like our services. we arrived only in 2010, but it is going well. in Italy we have invested five hundred million euro.”
Diego Piacentini, one of his top managers, soon will become the government’s adviser for innovation.
“Diego is a colleague and a friend, you’re in luck. I’ve known him for twenty years and has always told me that one day he would return to repay with your country. “
Once the mandate Piacentini back in Amazon?
“I told him he can come back when he wants, maybe even tomorrow. No, (laughs), tomorrow better than not. I know it takes a lot to this new commitment, it is a passion. “
You met the President of the Council, Matteo Renzi. A piece of advice for him?
” your prime minister is very interested in the way in which technology can improve society, from the digitization of the country about how you can increase productivity, innovation in public administration.
Do you think Donald Trump is fit to be President of the United States?
“a presidential candidate should be happy to be put under scrutiny, under discussion. We have a piece of paper in the United States, he says that there is freedom of speech. It’s called the Constitution. But if nobody respected, it would have no significance. The fundamental reason of the laws is that people believe in them. Otherwise it would not make sense. If you believe in freedom of speech, especially as a candidate, you have a duty to respect it and say: ‘Come here, I am at your disposal, esaminatemi’. “
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